WHERE IS NOODLEhttps://whereisnoodle.com
TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLDMon, 14 Aug 2017 04:17:38 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngWHERE IS NOODLEhttps://whereisnoodle.com
Bragging in Bragahttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/13/bragging-in-braga/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/13/bragging-in-braga/#respondMon, 14 Aug 2017 04:17:30 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4111]]>We piled into the car after 9:00 and headed to Braga, the third largest city in Portugal with a very attractive old town, where we had an excellent breakfast and then walked around and soaked it in.

We headed towards the city center, where the main sights were located.

Braga’s upscale old center is packed with lively cafes and trim boutiques, some excellent restaurants and low-key bars catering to students from the Universidade do Minho.

The constant chiming of bells is a reminder of Braga’s age-old devotion to the spiritual world. Its religious festivals – particularly the elaborately staged Semana Santa (Holy Week) – are famous throughout Portugal.

The Braga Cathedral, due to its long history and artistic significance, it is also one of the most important buildings in the country. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Braga.

The charming historic centre, is a joy to wander and is filled with traditional buildings and historic monuments, but we decided to leave Braga because we also needed to visit the city of Guimarães.

After just a couple of hours, nothing else caught our attention and we headed to the car to continue our drive…

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/13/bragging-in-braga/feed/0Braga_009eitannudelPort Wine Tastinghttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/09/port-wine-tasting/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/09/port-wine-tasting/#respondThu, 10 Aug 2017 03:15:43 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4410]]>After that sardines lunch, we were ready for the second part of our Porto day!

We walked with an Australian couple who had taken the tour to the meeting place for the 3:00 winery tour about port wine production that was to include lots of tasting.

At the meeting place, we were greeted by a guide who was to walk us from winery to winery. However, once we proceeded, Elly needed a toilet. Badly. The very nice female guide rushed with Elly ahead of the group to the first tasting place. Everyone else leisurely crossed the beautiful bridge towards Vila Nova de Gaia, but now using the lower level.

There are a bunch of guys jumping into the river for a few coins. We also found a few crazy tourists who joined their ranks.

When we arrived, a man came up to Dan and said, “Are you Dan? Your wife wants you.” Dear reader, we will now spare you further details, other than that Dan found Elly in the Men’s bathroom (it was closest), where the two of them then spent a fair amount of time. Travel is one of the greatest things a human can do with his/her time on earth, but it does come with moments like this. The good news: Whatever Elly had eaten that disagreed with her, went through her system and her recovery was swift. She and Dan skipped the tour and, once the lovely Porto bathroom had fulfilled its mission, they walked back to the hotel, where Elly recuperated the rest of the day and Dan relaxed, something he is occasionally able to do if left with no alternatives.

Of course, Eitan and Sarah stayed at the wineries to enjoy the famous Port wine, which is a sweet, red, fortified wine made right here in Porto.

Port is most commonly enjoyed as a dessert wine because it is rich and sweet. There are several styles of Port, including red, white, rosé and an aged style called Tawny Port.

Portugal produces about half the world output of commercial cork, and its exports over recent years have accounted for around 70 percent of world trade.

We had an amazing tasting of several types of Port wine. We didn’t even know there was more than one type!

The last winery we visited had a beautiful terrace with a view of the Duoro river.

After the tour was over, we headed back towards the main part of town to get something to eat.

We planned to meet our two new friends from Barcelona who were at the same tour this afternoon. We walked together to an open food and music market where we got a couple beers and talked about life in Europe vs in the U.S.

It was very interesting to hear about the difference in salaries, hobbies and other differences in our not-so-distant lives.

There was a food stand that was selling the famous Francesinha. This abomination of local food is made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with melted cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce served with french fries. Of course, Eitan had to try it, it was good but nothing mind-blowing.

Bonus Pic of The Day: This is the brochure that most restaurants hang on their windows to explain to the naive tourists how they make the Francesinha. Cafe Santiago is the most famous place to eat this, but with long lines that day, we decided to skip it.

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/08/09/port-wine-tasting/feed/0Porto_072eitannudelFree Tour: Porto Editionhttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/31/free-tour-porto-edition/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/31/free-tour-porto-edition/#respondTue, 01 Aug 2017 04:29:13 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4254]]>After a good night at our hotel in Porto, we started our sightseeing day at a nice breakfast place the guidebook recommended.

Then on to a free tour of Porto!! This was a major event in the lives of Elly and Dan. They have tended to avoid tours, preferring to walk and explore on their own. However, Sarah and Eitan insisted on doing this, which introduced Elly and Dan to the exciting world of free tours (though generous tipping should be practiced), which involve enthusiastic young locals providing insights that would otherwise be missed. Another great benefit of these tours is the international group that they attract, with the only disadvantage being that Elly and Dan were two-to-three times the average age of their fellow travelers.

Porto is a fascinating and vibrant city that is rapidly becoming one of Western Europe’s most respected tourist destinations. The city boasts an extensive history, interesting tourist attractions, and a buzzing nightlife.

The first stop was the Sao Bento railway station. Built in the 19th century, the French structure holds within 20,000 magnificent azulejo tin-glazed ceramic tiles depicting Portugal’s past – its royalty, its wars, and its transportation history. The blue and white tiles were placed over a period of 11 years (1905–1916) by artist Jorge Colaço.

To the left of the entrance is a scene depicting the Battle of Arcos de Valdevez and Egas Moniz before Alfonso VII of Castile.

We then walked to the famous Majestic Cafe. In the biography of J. K. Rowling, written by Sean Smith, it states that when the writer was living in Porto, she spent much of her time at the Majestic working on the first book of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”.

Located along the Douro river estuary in Northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centres, and its historical core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996.

Its settlement dates back many centuries, when it was an outpost of the Roman Empire. Its combined Celtic-Latin name, Portus Cale, has been referred to as the origin of the name “Portugal”, based on transliteration and oral evolution from Latin.

We crossed the Dom Luis I Bridge, this double-deck engineering beauty spans over the River Douro between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. At its construction, its 172 metres (564 ft) span was the longest of its type in the world.

You can see the Maria Pia Bridge, which was designed by Gustave Eiffel. If this doesn’t ring the bell, he designed the Eiffel Tower and built the Statue Of Liberty.

The tour continued… we visited a viewpoint of all the city.

And then we walked the narrow alleys of one of Porto’s most picturesque neighborhoods.

The tour lasted three hours, with all sorts of intriguing details about Porto, and ended at a dessert place. There is this family that makes delicious desserts to sell right in front of their home, the chocolate cake was the specialty… which may have proved to be problematic digestively (for Elly).

Bonus Pic of The Day: Citizens of Porto are informally known as “Tripeiros” which literally translates to “animal gutters”. According to a well-known legend of the 15th century, Henry the Navigator needed a lot of supplies for his Conquest of Ceuta. As a result, the city and its citizens gave up all the supplies they had, including all their food up to the last gram of meat. All they had left were the animal “guts” or “tripas” and they did their best to make that work. As a result, a now-famous dish came along called “Tripas à Moda do Porto.”

We didn’t want to try this Tripas dish, but Sarah “Bourdain” decided that a plate of nasty looking sardines would make a good tasty lunch instead. That nasty smell is enough to end marriages….

To be continued…

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/31/free-tour-porto-edition/feed/0Porto_051eitannudel700 Year Old Universityhttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/24/700-year-old-university/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/24/700-year-old-university/#respondTue, 25 Jul 2017 04:40:38 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4150]]>We then headed off to Coimbra, which was something more than 1½ hours away, another easy drive with ¾ of our party sleeping.

Unfortunately, once the GPS got us to the “town center” of Coimbra, the place was totally nondescript with no indication where the cute part might be. Eventually, we drove to the university, passing up a miracle parking space because we thought it wasn’t real, only to lose it to someone who knew it was.

We came down the hill from the university and eventually found the cute old city but parking was impossible until we came to a subterranean lot under a very old building. We headed down the ramp. Bad idea. The sign said that the only empty space was three levels down. We went down two levels on an incredibly steep, narrow ramp, with pillars everywhere and cars wedged in tightly together. If the Inquisition had had torture dungeons for cars, this would have been it. Dan decided to not go down further since, if there was a space, the cars were parked so close to each other, the odds of a ding or worse were great. Eitan got out of the car and helped direct Dan back up, with Dan burning up the clutch on the incline, but surviving. How bad was it? Neither Dan nor Eitan memorialized the experience with a photo. Finally, for 30 cents, we exited. The most stressful non-parking experience since the invention of the internal combustion engine.

We then were directed to a space on the street by a guy who had an official-looking plastic badge around his neck, asserting he was a municipal employee who assisted with street parking. Eitan said it was a scam, but Dan tipped him and opened up the back to get his fanny pack out. Eitan was then very uneasy, thinking that people now saw all our cases and the car would be targeted for a break-in. Dan thought Eitan was just having India PTSD, but we decided to play it safe and drove off in search of another space, which we eventually found, and bought three hours of parking.

We walked up many stairs back to the university (where we had not taken the miracle spot that would have avoided all of our parking trauma).

The university is the oldest in Portugal and it has the oldest library, which Eitan informed us is a sight worth seeing. However, when we got there, the first tour we could get was at 6:40, 3 ½ hours away. Dan and Elly quickly said that this wasn’t worth waiting for. This made FOMO Eitan very upset, as he argued that this was a main sight to see here and he simply didn’t understand how we could come so far and not see it rather than driving on to Porto where we would be spending three nights. Eitan then pouted and said, ok, it was up to us. Peace-maker Elly went in line and bought the tickets.

Our obligatory moment of Trip Tension was now over. Everyone relaxed and walked into the old town which turned out to be very cute.

We searched for a restaurant that was open at 4:00, which was hard to do and finally got one down on the river, which was quite good.

Coimbra’s history dates back to Roman times, when it was called Aeminium. In the middle of the12th century, the first Portuguese King, Afonso Henriques, made Coimbra the capital of the country, which it remained until 1255.

We walked more around the city center passing along churches, fountains and shopping streets.

We returned to the car, as Eitan had the smart idea that, by 6:00, spaces would be opening up near the university, and he was right. We found a spot near the earlier miraclespace.

Established in 1290 in Lisbon, it went through a number of relocations until it was moved permanently to its current city in 1537, being one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world and the oldest university of Portugal.

On 22 June 2013, UNESCO added the university to its World Heritage List.

Included in the tour was the adjacent palace and Saint Michael chapel, which could be seen at any time. We visited these, which were an indication that Europe has too many palaces! On any other continent, this would be one of the main sights to see. In Europe, it’s just another spectacular palace.

We visited The University’s Grand Examination Room.

Finally, we went to our 6:40 tour of The University’s Joanine Library, founded in 1717. The room was extraordinary, looking like an improbable movie set, with towering shelves containing ancient books. Stupidly, they wouldn’t allow photos, but Dan snuck some.

The building has three floors and shelters about 200000 volumes, of which 40000 are located on the first floor. These bibliographic collections can be consulted, by request, with justification and motives for the need to consultation. Upon approval, the referenced work is taken to the Biblioteca Geral by functionary, where the document can be examined

It’s well worth climbing its tower, which houses the bells that signal the start and end of classes, in order to appreciate the superb 360º view of Coimbra.

With everyone returned to good moods, we got in the car and headed to Porto. Eitan fell asleep for the third time on the day’s rides. The Peugot’s GPS, while a godsend, was surprisingly primitive inasmuch as it didn’t give street and exit names and, indeed, it gave the wrong location of our hotel, depositing us a block and a-half away. We finally found it and got a good parking place, ending our challenging parking day with a positive experience. We entered the quite modern hotel, which was a good mile from the old town. The rooms were clean and sharp, with showers with doors!

We settled in, then Sarah and Eitan went out to dinner (Eitan couldn’t understand how Elly and Dan could go on two meals a day).

Bonus Pic Of The Day: Taking care of a library full of old valuable books is not easy. In addition to issues of humidity and temperature, the stacks are affected by another “enemy”: papirófagos, insects that survive on paper. But, the structure is protected by being constructed of oak woods, that, in addition to its dense nature (which makes it difficult for wood penetration, elicits an odor that is repellent to these insects. The books are also protected by a small colony of bats, that during the night consume the insects that appear, eliminating the pest and assisting the maintenance of the stacks. Naturally, these mammals require additional care in order to prevent damage to the grains of the wooden furniture. Nightly, functionaries cover the “bufets” (credenzas) with leather towels, and in the morning, the library is cleaned.

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/24/700-year-old-university/feed/0Wonderspaces_1eitannudelMedieval Obidoshttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/21/medieval-obidos/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/21/medieval-obidos/#respondSat, 22 Jul 2017 05:38:58 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4236]]>After the hotel’s excellent breakfast, at 8:45am, we left and headed for Obidos. As much as Eitan tried to find fault with Dan’s excellent stick-shift driving, he had no problem sleeping for long periods with Dan at the wheel, as did Eitan’s wife and mother-in-law. But, once we arrived at the parking lot, Dan failed to see there was a gate at the entrance and kept driving towards it. He was able to stop about 2 inches from breaking it… a miracle!

On the approach to town, you can see bastions and defensive walls standing like sentinels over the now-peaceful valley of the Ria Arnoia.

Óbidos has a long association with prominent Portuguese women. Young Queen Isabel was so enchanted with Óbidos—which she visited with her husband, Dom Dinis, shortly after their marriage in 1282—that the king gave it to her as a gift, along with Abrantes and Porto de Mós; the town remained the property of the queens of Portugal until 1834.

We started by walking the walls around the city. The views of the traditional houses are magnificent.

The first shots in the Battle of Roliça during the French Invasions were fired from the walls of Óbidos in 1808, leading to Napoleon’s first defeat in the Peninsular War.

Obidos is a very small town and all of the major sights can be seen within in a couple of hours.

Each July Óbidos castle hosts a traditional ‘Medieval Market’. For two weeks the castle and the surrounding town recreate the spirit of medieval Europe. Flowing banners and heraldic flags set the mood together with hundreds of entertainers and stall holders dressed as merchants, jugglers, jesters, wandering minstrels, soldiers and more. We were there right before the festival started….

Obidos is one of the most picturesque towns in Portugal. The compact town center is filled with cobbled streets and traditionally painted houses. We walked to the main street full of shops. Mostly chocolate and ceramic souvenirs are being sold here.

There was a purchase of a vase and excellent chocolate.

We walked back to the car to continue our Journey north.

Next, to the parking lot, there is this aqueduct. Originating in Usseira, the aqueduct it is 3 km long. In the 16th century, Queen Catarina commissioned its construction in exchange for the “Várzea da Rainha” (fertile land outside the castle walls).

Bonus Pic Of The Day: Eitan thinking who he will take next….

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/21/medieval-obidos/feed/0Obidos_041eitannudelFairytale Sintrahttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/11/fairytale-sintra/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/11/fairytale-sintra/#respondWed, 12 Jul 2017 05:09:44 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=4069]]>After our strange and curious day in Lisbon during which Sarah & Eitan and Elly & Dan did their own things, we rejoined forces to go to Sintra, a fairy-tale town just 20 miles outside of Lisbon.

Unfortunately, fairy-tale towns don’t have a lot of fairy-tale parking, so we struggled to find a lot, finally locating one by the train station, with Dan almost driving through the barrier arm at the entrance before it had lifted (he did these things so Eitan would experience some of the excitement of riding in India).

Sintra is known for its many 19th-century Romantic architectural monuments, which has resulted in its classification as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We walked about a mile into the town, where things got very quaint and charming.

In the center of Sintra is a big palace with unusual conical chimneys, and lurking above the town is a 10th-century Moorish castle.

We took the tour of the palace. The thousand-year-old history of the Palace of the Town of Sintra began during the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.

Already mentioned in texts from the 11th century, the original Moorish Palace became the property of the Portuguese Crown after the conquest of the city of Lisbon by Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in 1147

Of all the palaces built by the Portuguese monarchs throughout the Middle Ages, only the Palace of Sintra has survived to the present day virtually intact, still maintaining the same essential features of its shape and outline since the mid-16th century.

There was a beautiful room full of azulejos.

Dan then got in line for the bus up to the Pena Palace. The line was very very long, so we decided it was worth it to be driven to the palace in a Citroen convertible for twice the price and twice the fun. This turned out to work out very well, since the bus required a roundtrip ticket and we ended up walking back.

After being dropped off, we still had to hike up to the palace itself, which was a truly Disneyland version of a castle, with bright colors and exaggerated features … inventive and delightful in every way.

Located in the Sintra hills, the Park and Palace of Pena are the fruit of King Ferdinand II’s creative genius and the greatest expression of 19th-century romanticism in Portugal, denoting clear influences from the Manueline and Moorish styles of architecture.

The interior of the palace, being restored to reflect the decor of 1910, when the Portuguese nobility fled to Brazil to escape the revolution, was not so delightful when we encountered the crowds, which were so oppressive that we finally exited the tour. What’s more, the few rooms we saw were not as enchanting as the exterior.

We spent some more time visiting the castle grounds.

We were able to walk around one of the towers, which offered amazing vistas of Sintra and its palaces and castles.

We explored some more of the palace ramparts, then headed down to the adjacent mountain top that had the Moorish castle ruins.

This is when we discovered that there was a very well maintained, rock-paved trail back to the town (our driver, wanting our return business, had told us the only way to walk down was on the narrow road with the buses and cars), so we went to the entrance to the castle, took some photos and, overruling Eitan’s FOMO, chose to not hike around the castle ruins themselves and instead walk back to town.

The walk was along the first and second defensive walls.

The walk down was delightful (Dan’s problematic knee kept hanging in there, though it was marginal at times) and this all worked out extremely well.

We went to a snacky restaurant for gazpacho, potato skins, a cheese plate and wine. This was especially pleasant, with some very good conversation about travel and eating and life.

There was some shopping and walking around the cute town.

We walked back to the car to start our drive back to Lisbon for the night.

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/11/fairytale-sintra/feed/0Sintra_112eitannudelThe Tower Of Belemhttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/09/the-tower-of-belem/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/09/the-tower-of-belem/#respondMon, 10 Jul 2017 02:28:10 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=3998]]>While we were separated from Elly and Dan for the day, we decided we needed to explore Belem, on of the “Freguesias” (civil parish) of Lisbon. Originally we wanted to take the historical tram to get there, but the insane quantity of tourists and the long wait between trams forced us to take the normal bus to get there.

We went straight to eat at one local eatery. The food is cheap, but not amazing. We got to try one of Portugal’s native beers “Super Bock.

We walked towards the main sights of the city, passing through many national and governmental buildings protected by police with swords!

The most famous “Pasteis de Belem” shop is here (go figure), the line is insane but we couldn’t come here without trying them.

The cost a little over 1 Euro.

We took some to go for Elly and Dan to try, as a consolation price for missing this amazing Belem sightseeing day.

Our first stop was at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jeronimos Monastery). The Jeronimos Monastery is the most impressive symbol of Portugal’s power and wealth during the Age of Discovery. King Manuel I built it in 1502 on the site of a hermitage founded by Prince Henry the Navigator, where Vasco da Gama and his crew spent their last night in Portugal in prayer before leaving for India.

It was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém, in 1983.

It was built to commemorate Vasco Da Gama’s voyage and to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for its success. Vasco da Gama’s tomb was placed inside by the entrance, as was the tomb of poet Luis de Camões, author of the epic The Lusiads in which he glorifies the triumphs of Da Gama and his compatriots.

The monastery was populated by monks of the Order of Saint Jerome (Hieronymites), whose spiritual job was to give guidance to sailors and pray for the king’s soul.

The cloisters are magnificent, each column differently carved with coils of rope, sea monsters, coral, and other sea motifs evocative of that time of world exploration at sea.

On 13 December 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed at the monastery, laying down the basis for the reform of the European Union.

After touring the monastery, we walked towards the water for the Monument of The Discoveries. This is located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with India and Orient, the monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery (or Age of Exploration) during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Unfortunately, the monument was being remodeled so we couldn’t really see it.

Here is a photo I took from google to show you how it looks:

The most iconic building around here is the Tower of Belem. The Torre de Belem is a small fort that was constructed in the centre of the Tejo Estuary to guard Lisbon from seafaring raiders. For such a trivial role the fort was lavished with beautiful and intricate details that include North African Moorish styled watchtowers, shield shaped battlements and the first European stone carving of a Rhinoceros.

The Tower of Belem was constructed as part of a line of defenses to protect Lisbon’s early harbor and was positioned in the middle of the Rio Tejo (River Tagus) on a small outcrop of rocks which also proved to be hazardous to shipping.

The Torre de Belem was completed in 1521 and was much more than a defensive position for the sailors who crossed the Atlantic or rounded the Cape of Good Hope to India.

To the western edge of Belem is the visually striking war memorial: The Monumento Combatentes Ultramar memorial is dedicated to soldiers of the Portuguese army who died during the Overseas War of 1961 to 1974.

We were lucky to be there when the changing of the guard was starting. So we stayed to enjoy the nice ceremony.

The Overseas War (Combatentes Ultramar) was a dark period in Portugal’s modern history that ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the Salazar dictatorship but the toll on Lisbon was extremely high as many of the soldiers’ families originated from the capital. The Overseas War took the lives of over 9,000 soldiers and lasted between 1961 and 1974 as Portugal desperately tried to retain its African colonies. We were lucky to see one of the artists re-carving the rock to maintain the readability.

We headed back to the center of Lisbon. We walked back through the famous Rua de Augusta, which was built to commemorate the city’s reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake.

Comercio Square opens onto Rua Augusta through the triumphal arch. This is a lively pedestrian street with mosaic pavements, outdoor cafes, international shops, and the occasional street artist and peddler.

We reached the famous Elevator De Santa Justa, this is a 19th century lift that transports passengers up the steep hill from the Baixa district to the Largo do Carmo. The lift dates from an era when wrought-iron was both a construction material and art form, and the structure is adorned with glorious neo-gothic arches and geometric patterns, while inside two sumptuous polished wood carriages whisk passengers up in style.

The line to use the elevator was enormous, so we walked the steep hill until we reached the Barrio Alto viewpoint where we enjoyed the sunset.

Beautiful city!

Bairro Alto is not much to see by day but as the sun sets, the numerous small bars open and the partying continues late into the night.

After walking around for what felt like hours, we decided to eat at an Argentinian steakhouse. It was spectacular! and with Portugal’s food prices this meal was very affordable.

We took the historical tram down to where our hotel was located to finish the night! Tomorrow we head out to the town of Sintra!

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/07/09/the-tower-of-belem/feed/0Blog_052eitannudelLisbon: The City Of Fadohttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/06/23/lisbon-the-city-of-fado/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/06/23/lisbon-the-city-of-fado/#respondFri, 23 Jun 2017 18:56:08 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=3961]]>After a short flight from Casablanca, Morocco to Lisbon, Portugal where Sarah got lucky enough to get all the rows for herself, we finally arrived back in the old continent.

After renting a car which took around 3 hours ( for some reason everyone was renting a car!), we headed to our beautiful hotel in the center of the city. They had free port wine and cherry liqueor for free!

We were eager to go visit the city so we walked around to find something to eat. We tried a traditional dish that consists of steak cooked in pork fat. It was delicious!

Lisbon is the stunning capital city of Portugal, and is one of the most charismatic and vibrant cities of Western Europe. It is a city that effortlessly blends traditional heritage, with striking modernism and progressive thinking

As a holiday destination, Lisbon offers a rich and varied history, lively nightlife and is blessed with a glorious year-round climate.

We quickly discovered Portugal’s most famous dessert, the Pastel De Nata. These little cakes were created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery (will visit later on). These monks were originally based in France where these pastries could be found in local bakeries. At the time, convents and monasteries used large quantities of egg-whites for starching clothes, such as nuns’ habits. It was quite common for monasteries and convents to use the leftover egg yolks to make cakes and pastries, resulting in the proliferation of sweet pastry recipes throughout the country.

They were good, but they were not thaaaat good (in my humble opinion)

The city has 5 tram lines operation since 1873.

They have become obsolete after the construction of the underground metro system.

The following day, we separated for the day from Dan and Elly in order to join one of those amazing free tours of the city. These are run by volunteers, usually students in need of some beer money!

The tour started at the Rossio Square, It has been the setting of popular revolts and celebrations, bullfights and executions, and is now a preferred meeting place of Lisbon natives and tourists alike.

The wave pattern stone paving was added to Rossio during the 19th century and was designed to resemble the oceans but more often disorientates late night revelers.

We stopped at the Igreja de São Domingos. The church was built in 1241 and was, at one time, the largest church in Lisbon. It was formerly the home of the Inquisition,

This was also the place of the Lisbon pogrom or the 1506 Easter Slaughter, this was an incident in April, 1506 in which a crowd of Catholics, as well as foreign sailors who were anchored in the Tagus, persecuted, tortured, killed, and burnt at the stake hundreds of people who were accused of being Jews and, thus, guilty of deceit and heresy.

We passed through one of the main delicatessens shops in Lisbon. Bacalhau (salted cod fish) is the most popular base commodity in Portuguese cooking. Traditionally there are more than 365 different dishes, one for each day of the year, and the country has a love affair with the pungent smelling fish. This ancient method of preservation means the cod can be stored indefinitely at ambient temperatures, with no bacterial or mold able to grow on the highly saline dried cod fish. The smell was puke inducing.

We passed the statue of King John I in the Praca da Figueira.

We made our way to the Alfama neighborhood, which is the birth place of Fado. Fado is the folk music of Lisbon’s rustic neighborhoods. Since the mid-1800s, it’s been the Lisbon blues — mournfully beautiful and haunting ballads about lost sailors, broken hearts, and bittersweet romance.

Fado means “fate” — how fate deals with Portugal’s adventurers…and the families they leave behind. The lyrics reflect the pining for a loved one across the water, hopes for a future reunion,

We had the opportunity to try Ginjinha, a liqueur made by infusing ginja berries, (sour cherry) in alcohol (aguardente is used) and adding sugar together with other ingredients. Even Sarah was able to drink that one!

We made our way to one of the multiple viewpoints around the city.

We strolled around the narrow streets where we would have been lost if it wasn’t for our amazing guide, Andrea.

Unlike most capital cities, Lisbon’s status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal.

You couldn’t blame your average lisboêta for thinking of the apocalypse when the ground gave way just before 10am on 1 November, 1755. What followed was up to eight astonishing minutes of city-shattering shaking spread across three tremors, followed 40 minutes later by a massive, city-engulfing tsunami, culminating in a week-long firestorm that incinerated what little was initially spared. Lisbon was decimated. Today, the modern city is shaped by that cataclysmic day – nearly everything is defined as before or after the earthquake – and the Pombaline architecture that defined post-quake Lisbon reconstruction counts as some of the first seismically protected constructions in Europe.

The city is full of art and amazing graffiti.

We went to another viewpoint that gave us a nice view of the ocean. Lisbon is a popular cruise ship destination.

It is continental Europe’s westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. 2.8 million people live here!

Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the oldest in Western Europe, predating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by centuries.

We continued our tour until we reached the Lisboa Cathedral.

Since the beginning of the construction of the cathedral, in the year 1147, the building has been modified several times and survived many earthquakes. It is nowadays a mix of different architectural styles.

We finished the tour at the Praça do Comércio. On 1 February 1908, the square was the scene of the assassination of Carlos I, the penultimate King of Portugal. The assassins were shot on the spot by members of the bodyguard and later recognized as members of the Republican Party – which two years later overthrew the Portuguese monarchy.

This location was traditional where traders would sell their foreign wares and financiers would fund perilous expeditions to the far reaches of the known world. King Jose I was the Portuguese ruler during the reconstruction of Lisbon and the statue was inaugurated on his birthday on the 6th June 1775.

After tipping our guide, we were set free to keep enjoying this wonderful city.

In the morning we were met by a nice lady guide for a tour of Marrakesh.

Koutoubia Mosque, or Mosque of the Booksellers, was begun under the Berber dynasty of the Almoravids in 1120, but was substantially rebuilt from 1162 Almohad caliph under Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur, and became one of the most characteristic buildings this style. Its name comes from the fact that it was in the souk manuscripts merchants.

We walked to the Saadian Tombs. These tombs were sealed up for centuries until their rediscovery in 1917. Occupying a quiet enclosure at the Kasbah, the tombs are magnificently decorated with colorful tiles, Arabic script and elaborate carvings.

The enclosure consists of two main mausoleums, with 66 tombs laid out within them and over 100 more outside in the gardens

She asked us if we had seen Fez and confirmed that since we had then we had seen all the craft people, so this was nicely cut out of the tour. We saw the palace and Jewish quarter and other such things. Not nearly as extraordinary as Fez, but pretty interesting. Before noon, we were met by our trusty driver and guide, taken to the synagogue, but since it was Shabbat we weren’t let in. Then on to the Majorelle Gardens, where we had a most pleasant lunch and then walked around the gardens, which were lovely but quite small and a bit of a rip-off at $7/person.

It took French painter Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) forty years of passion and dedication to create this enchanting garden in the heart of the “Ochre City”.

After a quick lunch in the garden’s restaurant we headed back to our hotel area.

We were driven back to our riad, where everyone relaxed during this time, with Eitan also getting a haircut, this time his haircut was way better than the one in India.

We all went shopping and then to a restaurant with a view of the square, which was, for Morocco, pricey ($10-15 entrees) and we feared touristy, but in fact it was good and also air conditioned. During the meal, we discussed Portugal and it was determined we should go to Porto, which wasn’t in our itinerary.

We walked back through the market streets while Dan went back to the hotel to work a little bit.

Sarah and Elly bought matching earrings!

The next morning we walked to the Lazama Synagogue, where a group from Israel with Marrakesh roots were having a rather joyous service. Very spirited.

The synagogue and courtyard felt like they got used and weren’t just a museum. Inside the austere worship area, you can see the zellij tilework’s Star of David motif. The courtyard’s surrounding ground-floor rooms have exhibits of Moroccan Jewish life.

Some photos on the walls of Moroccan Jews from the ‘20s and ‘30s were quite evocative. Even Eitan said some positive things.

The Jewish Cemetery in Marrakech is located adjacent to the Mellah quarter inside the medina (walled city). Like many places in the medina, there is no hint that behind the fairly anonymous entrance and perimeter walls lies such a vast space and one of such significance. The Jewish heritage of this place truly is not made up.

Fascinating and incredibly well preserved, the cemetery is the largest Jewish cemetery in Morocco and is characterized by white-washed tombs and sandy graves. Despite being the largest cemetery, the graves have three burial layers in order to make the limited space go further. The cemetery is very important in the Jewish world as many famous and respected Tsadikkims are buried here.

Morocco had been pretty fantastic at every level. A completely different travel experience, Third World but comfortable and not challenging in any serious way, but a thorough alien experience.

We arrived at the Sky Hotel, a wonderfully nondescript modern hotel near the airport, just what we were ready for after all the“roughing it” in the Third World. We gave the guys their tips and said the last bittersweet goodbye. We showered and refreshed, then had dinner outdoors, which to our surprise Hassan told us was included. It was French and only so-so, but relaxing.

The next day, we will be flying to the beautiful Portugal!

Bonus Pic Of The Day: Red with a green pentacle known as Sulayman’s (Solomon’s) seal in the center of the flag; red and green are traditional colors in Arab flags, although the use of red is more commonly associated with the Arab states of the Persian gulf; the pentacle represents the five pillars of Islam and signifies the association between God and the nation:

]]>https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/06/19/shukran-morocco/feed/0blog_042eitannudelblog_003blog_043blog_040blog_041blog_046blog_045blog_044blog_005blog_004blog_047blog_049blog_048blog_050blog_051blog_011blog_054blog_053blog_052blog_009blog_055blog_056blog_012Marrakeshhttps://whereisnoodle.com/2017/06/07/marrakesh/
https://whereisnoodle.com/2017/06/07/marrakesh/#respondThu, 08 Jun 2017 03:42:27 +0000http://whereisnoodle.com/?p=3891]]>It is the fourth largest city in the country, after Casablanca, Fez and Tangier. But is possibly the most important of Morocco’s four former imperial cities (cities that were built by Moroccan Berber empires).

Marrakesh has some similarities to Fez in its age and sites, but there is one big difference: Motorcycles.

Whereas, in Fez, the biggest risk was getting nudged by a donkey, in Marrakesh, there was the constant possibility of being run over by some form of motorized bike. This literally kept us on our toes. Sarah and Eitan compared the intensity to India, but without rude people and no s— in the streets…. and cows are eaten here which is nice.

Fortunately, we stayed in a beautiful riad on the side street of a side street. Cars don’t fit in those narrow streets, so there are guys waiting in the parking lot for tourist who do not want to carry their bags all the way to the hotel; for a couple Dinars they will do it for you!

It was wonderfully quiet and blissfully air conditioned.

We soon developed the necessary sixth sense to stay out of the way of bikes and soaked in the Medina.

After relaxing for a little bit, we walked a few narrow streets full of souvenirs until we reached the main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa.

Once a bus station, the place was closed to vehicle traffic in the early 2000s. The authorities are well aware of its importance to the tourist trade, and a strong but discrete police presence ensures the safety of visitors.

As the day progresses, the entertainment offered changes: the snake charmers depart, and late in the day the square becomes more crowded, with Chleuh dancing-boys (it would be against custom for girls to provide such entertainment), story-tellers (telling their tales in Berber or Arabic, to an audience of locals), magicians, and peddlers of traditional medicines. As darkness falls, the square fills with dozens of food-stalls as the number of people on the square peaks.

When you take a picture of anyone doing a show, you will immediately get aggressively greeted (you don’t even know where they came from) by a guy asking for money to pay for the show. You have to pay or you will get screamed at as if you have committed a capital crime.

The food court was spectacular. Even though we didn’t dare to eat street food here, the smells of all these stands was enough to imagine what we were missing.

Every stand has the iconic mint tea glasses ready to be served. Just add boiled water and enjoy!!

Around the market, you can find stands to buy dry fruit and nuts. What a paradise!

The next morning we had a sightseeing day. The first stop was the Bahia Palace:

Set in extensive gardens, was built in the late 19th century by the Grand Vizier of Marrakech, Si Ahmed ben Musa (Bou-Ahmed).

Bou Ahmed resided here with his four wives, 24 concubines and many children.[40] With a name meaning “brilliance”, it was intended to be the greatest palace of its time and, as in similar developments of the period in other countries, it was designed to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan style.

We visited the Jewish quarter and other sites in the city, but no craft shops, since we made clear we had covered that in Fez. Marrakesh would have been a 10 if we had seen it before Fez, but compared to that place it earned a solid 7.773 on the precise Wolf Family Travel Scale.

We found a well-rated place to eat, guess what we ordered? you are right… Tajines!

Bonus Pic of the Day: How to write our names in Berber! courtesy of our awesome guide Hassan.